The Daily Dose/February 13, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
The evil drug lord commonly known as El Chapo – roughly ‘Shorty’ in English – was found guilty in New York federal court Tuesday on 53 counts of drug smuggling, racketeering, money laundering and murder.
Now what?
Has this triumph of American justice changed anything? Has the demand for cocaine and heroin and the other products any drug lord peddles lessened? Has the violence that attends the importation and sale of illegal drugs gone away?
No, no and no.
Nothing has changed, Americans still consume tons of illegal drugs and people on both sides of the border are still dying every day. Neither El Chapo’s conviction nor his impending imprisonment will change anything, either.
Prosecutors claimed complete triumph, of course, citing, among other things, the 100,000 Mexicans who have died because of drug violence and the families of those fighting addiction.
You know what? If drugs were legal those people don’t die because the violence associated with the importation and sale of illegal drugs disappears.
(You know, we are not completely insensitive to those who have lost loves ones to drug abuse. My brother died under a freeway overpass in southern California in no small part because of his drug addiction. It happens. To expect someone’s arrest, prosecution and conviction to alleviate that pain in any measure is insulting.)
Is our border with Mexico racked with violence over coffee? No, it is not. Why? Because coffee is legal. Coffee growers and exporters only need to find people to sell their coffee to and arrange to have it imported.
It should be the same for manufacturers and importers of narcotics as well. Legalize drugs and the attendant violence goes away and drug lords go from being arch-criminals to mere vendors trying to move some product, product there is a great demand for here in the United States.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow makes Valentines Day dinner reservations for him and The Wife, and also makes a decision about his belt. Today’s Diary.
Thing is, I’ve had this belt since I lost a lot of weight in 2002 and had to buy a new one…I remember paying some good dough for it, too, $30-$40 if I recall correctly, but it’s a Red Wing and that is first-class gear and it has many years left in it…There is no reason to replace it….It’s not the most exciting belt in human history – black leather with a routine silver buckle – but I’m not the most exciting person in human history and I like it.
Click here to follow Sparrow – an average man passing an average life. $5.99 includes past entries, too!
On This Date
In 1935 – Bruno Hauptmann is convicted of the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh by a jury in New Jersey. Though Hauptmann maintained his innocence, he became a suspect when he was discovered to have spent some the ransom money, more of which was found in his garage. Justice was swift back then and Hauptmann was executed the following April.
In 1954 – Frank Selvy of Furman University scores 100 points in a 149-95 victory over Newberry College. The game was played in four ten-minute quarters back then and Selvy scored 37 points in the final period, including six points in the last 30 seconds, to reach the 100-point mark. Video of the game is instructive: All the players are white. The standing set shot was still popular, as was the hook shot and the free throw lane is narrow, a shape which led it to be called “the key” because it looked like a keyhole. Selvy was the second NCAA player to score 100 points in a game and remains the only major division player to do it. The NCAA all-division record for Points in a Game is 138, by Jack Taylor of Grinnell College in 2012.
In 1971 – The Osmonds are at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with One Bad Apple. It was the first chart single for the Osmonds and remains their only #1 song, though later in the year Donny Osmond would hit #1 on his own with Go Away Little Girl. One Bad Apple also went to #1 in Canada, was Billboard’s fourth biggest hit of the year and peaked at #6 on Billboard’s soul chart.
Quotebook
Rome had completed the fatal cycle known to Plato and to us: monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchic exploitation, democracy, revolutionary chaos, dictatorship. Once more…an age of freedom ended and an age of discipline began.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol. III: Caesar and Christ
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Almost Persuaded by David Houston spent nine weeks at #1 on Billboard’s country chart in 1966, the most of any song.
Today’s Stumper
Who was the first player to score 100 points in an NCAA game? –Answer next time!
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